Russia's Doomsday Machine

Very intresting article from Wired.

Yarynich is talking about Russia's doomsday machine. That's right, an actual doomsday device—a real, functioning version of the ultimate weapon, always presumed to exist only as a fantasy of apocalypse-obsessed science fiction writers and paranoid über-hawks

Deadhand - Russia's Doomsday Machine

The UK is considering scaling back their Trident program, Obama has revealed the the US is backing off the missle Defense Shield, so what use would the continued presence of "Perimeter" be?

I've always been a "peace loving liberal hippy" type, got that from my parents, remember them from an early age going to anti-nuclear weapons protests but I wonder how much any of that really helped. Sure we seem to be standing down from the Nuclear option, but is that because there are worse things out there?

so what’s the proof that this dooms day device actually exists now?

the world we live in today has always been fashioned by war, just that back in the day they did it with swords and shields, a much better way if you ask me but technology has ruined all of that and now instead of thousands of men fighting on a battle field there’s probably a fat man sat somewhere that can push a button and kill a load of people, its beyond belief really!!!

I always figured they had something like this. They were too paranoid in those days not to imo.

reply to post by Black Mambo

The point of the system, he explains, was to guarantee an automatic Soviet response to an American nuclear strike. Even if the US crippled the USSR with a surprise attack, the Soviets could still hit back. It wouldn't matter if the US blew up the Kremlin, took out the defense ministry, severed the communications network, and killed everyone with stars on their shoulders. Ground-based sensors would detect that a devastating blow had been struck and a counterattack would be launched.

The technical name was Perimeter, but some called it Mertvaya Ruka, or Dead Hand. It was built 25 years ago and remained a closely guarded secret. With the demise of the USSR, word of the system did leak out, but few people seemed to notice. In fact, though Yarynich and a former Minuteman launch officer named Bruce Blair have been writing about Perimeter since 1993 in numerous books and newspaper articles, its existence has not penetrated the public mind or the corridors of power. The Russians still won't discuss it, and Americans at the highest levels—including former top officials at the State Department and White House—say they've never heard of it. When I recently told former CIA director James Woolsey that the USSR had built a doomsday device, his eyes grew cold. "I hope to God the Soviets were more sensible than that." They weren't.

If it's just an automated nuclear response, so it's entirely plausible.

I don't think Britain should scale back our nuclear deterrent just yet, the US & Russia should take the first steps.

[edit on 23-9-2009 by john124]

reply to post by Marrr


Really it's what we don't know about that worries me. I figure for every project we hear about there is much we don't. Afterall those black budgets have to be spent on something.

I feel hopefull when I hear various leaders talk about disarmament, but for everything they give up I suspect there is a lot we just don't know about.

And this is how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Good article.
I've been fascinated by the doomsday device/system for years.The wired article mentions Bruce Blair,a minuteman launch officer.He has a great series of articles on nuclear matters including the deadhand system on his website,which is very informative for anyone interested:

www.cdi.org...

I bet the Ruskies are not the only country to have such a system.I imagine the USA has something similar,and Israel have what is known as "the Samson option,"(allegedly)which is much the same thing.

The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well.[1] Israel refuses to admit it has nuclear weapons or to describe how it would use them, an official policy of nuclear ambiguity, also known as "nuclear opacity." This has made it difficult for anyone outside the Israeli government to definitively describe its true nuclear policy, while still allowing Israel to influence the perceptions, strategies and actions of other governments.[2]

en.wikipedia.org...

Seymour Hersh wrote a book about it too:

www.amazon.co.uk...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253706859&sr=8-1

Crazy humans...crazy world.

This is what makes me upset about my human relations, SMH. So we got electronic weapons already in play to make sure EVERYONE/EVERYTHING IS DEAD AFTER A NUCLEAR ATTACK as if the nuclear attack aint enough we gotta worry about some TERMINATOR STYLE bull going down, SAD HUMANS SAD.

DEADHAND isn't new at all

I knew about it for years, and apparently it's new HQ is based in the Mt. Yamantau superfortress in the Caucauses. Perfect place because it can withstand multiple nuclear strikes and it has an underground tunnel/railway system apparently leading all the way to the Kremlin.

Point of DEADHAND is that Russians never lose; no matter how many of them you slaughter they will always kick your ass. Also, Russia has many civilian/military nuclear bunkers in its major cities and bases so they have the capability to withstand a nuclear attack too.